


Blossoming

by Shriek



Series: Blossoming 'verse [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast Has Issues, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Mollymauk lives, Resurrection, Self-Esteem Issues, Tattoos, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-07-12 04:50:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15987992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shriek/pseuds/Shriek
Summary: When Beau, Nott, and Caleb stumble upon a shop advertising magical tattoos, they all decide to get one in Molly's honor. This leads to a bit of a revelation after Molly is resurrected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this in the works since the NPC creation poll put the idea of a magical tattoo artist in my head. I couldn't resist.

Even if Beau weren’t in the habit of picking colorful people out of crowds by now, she would have noticed the half-orc woman. Partially because she’s a half-orc. They tend to stand out, even when Beau isn’t, apparently, subconsciously on alert for a hint of green, or blue, or white --not purple, though-- as if Fjord, Jester, and Yasha would just stroll up to them like they’d been off buying potions. Partially it’s because the woman is yelling, loudly, about the grand opening of something or other. And partially it’s the tattoos.

The woman is covered in vibrant tattoos on almost every visible bit of skin. The tattoos aren’t anything like Molly’s, but Beau can’t help thinking about the last time a loud, colorful, heavily-tattooed person entered her life, and she finds herself getting closer without really planning to. The tattoos, as it turns out, are as much a part of her advertisement as the words she’s shouting.

“Come on in to the grand opening of the empire’s _only_ magical tattoo parlor, MetamorphosInk! Only here can you find tattoos that move and change, based on conditions _you_ set! As a grand opening special we have some lovely flash art that can be inked today for only ten gold!”

Beau makes her way up to the woman. “Show me. You say your tattoos move, show me.”

The woman grins at her and holds out an arm. She snaps her fingers and the brilliant blue snake on her forearm starts to wiggle and flick its tongue.

Caleb comes up beside Beau, Nott trailing behind him. “What are you doing?”

“Hey, you guys wanna get tattoos?” Caleb stares at her incredulously.

“We could get like, peacocks or something.” Now Caleb is looking at her like she’s begun speaking another language entirely. Nott comes to Beau’s rescue.

“It could be in honor of Molly. Like a… memorial or something. That sounds nice, doesn’t it, Caleb?”

Caleb thinks about it. A memorial. In Molly’s honor.

“...He had an orange hibiscus flower. Right here.” Caleb splays his hand on his stomach, over his right hip. “It had… emotional significance.”

“How do _you_ know that?” Even with the tapestry incident fresh in her memory, Beau can’t think of a time she ever saw a bright orange flower tattoo a few inches from Molly’s crotch, much less learned the meaning of it.

Caleb just looks at her.

“Oh.” Oh shit. Caleb and Molly.

Caleb doesn’t even mind Beau’s surprise. He’s still surprised himself. Or disbelieving, now, that it ever happened at all. He was surprised every time, when Molly would put his lips to Caleb’s skin and make him feel, if only for a little while, like he was worth something.

“A hibiscus flower, that sounds pretty,” Nott says. Caleb can tell she’s trying to draw him out of his head before he gets too lost.

“Yeah, could you make it bloom or something?” Beau adds.

“Hmm, that might be pricey, but I’m sure our artist could do it. Come on in and we’ll have it drawn up for you.”

The artist is another half-orc, a man, and he wants two hundred gold each for such a complex enchantment. That does seem pricey, but none of them argue. It’s for Molly.

It takes a long time to get the design for the tattoo finalized and Caleb can tell Beau is getting impatient, but to her credit, she doesn’t say anything. Even without his perfect recall Caleb would remember the beauty of that flower, and he wants to get it right.

“Alright, now you just have to choose a condition to trigger the tattoo’s movement. Finger snapping is a common one, or flexing…” The woman flexes and a tiefling girl on her arm winks.

“What about when we say Molly’s name?”

“No,” Caleb says immediately.

Looking at the flower, this beautiful, bright representation of the man he held so briefly, it seems right that it should stay closed. That he should deny himself the sight of something so good. And maybe he doesn’t deserve it, but Caleb wants to keep the shape of Molly’s name in his mouth. He doesn’t want to risk that this will deter him from speaking it.

Beau glances at Nott, hoping she might know why Caleb protested. Nott sees the way Caleb is staring at the picture, the faraway look he’s getting, and doesn’t bother with the why of it, she just starts rallying.

“Okay, how about--”

“Warmth.” Caleb looks up at the artist. “Can you make it react to warmth?”

Beau is utterly confused. “Like… the sun?”

“Any warmth,” Caleb says, focused solely on the tattoo artist. 

Molly was always warm to the touch. Tiefling blood, he said, made him run hot. If Caleb tries, he can still feel the heat of Molly’s skin against his own, making him bloom, making him feel beautiful.

“Oh yeah, I can do that. Not a problem.”

“Will there be an extra charge?” Beau asks suspiciously.

“Nope, part of the enchantment fee. Now who’s going first?”

Beau goes first. She grimaces a few times when the needles go over the same spot more than once, filling in the color, but overall the pain isn’t too bad. When it’s done she admires the orange hibiscus on her bicep.

Nott goes next, rolling up her sleeve and unwrapping the bandages to present her forearm to the tattoo artist. She screws up her face in anticipation of the pain, but when the needle touches her skin she immediately opens her eyes again.

“Oh, that’s not so bad! It’s kinda… tingly!”

Caleb tries to read while it’s being done, but even though he already watched Beau get hers, he can’t help being fascinated by the process. The picture slowly taking shape while the artist mutters arcane words and gestures with one hand while moving the machine with the other. Maybe Caleb could learn the spell, he thinks, in case Molly-- No, better to not think things like that. Hope can fester in wounds like this.

Finally, it’s Caleb’s turn. The artist sits up, cracks his back, and looks at Caleb.

“So where are we doing yours?”

Caleb splays his hand on his stomach, over his right hip. “Here.”

He’s a bit nervous, baring his torso and undoing his pants in front of so many people, but he reminds himself that Beau and Nott have seen this before. In the bath house, where he tried very hard _not_ to try and catch glimpses of Molly’s body. He failed, of course, and Molly noticed. Of course. And it ended up being the best mistake Caleb ever made. Or possibly the worst. To know loss so intimately again.

The pain of being tattooed is much more intense than Beau and Nott made it seem, and Caleb’s tattoo is much bigger than either of theirs, but he grits his teeth and bears it. Molly went through this exact pain, he reminds himself. This pain and much more, to have all of his beautiful adornments. And to make his magic work. Molly’s life seemed to be full of pain; Caleb can endure this small bit for him. When the needles get into more sensitive areas and Caleb gasps, Nott squeezes his hand. It's sweet of her, even if it doesn’t do anything to dull the sensation.

When the tattoo artist declares him finished, Caleb stands in front of the full length mirror and just stares. The bright orange ink pops against his pale skin. It’s tender and raw but Caleb brushes his fingers over it anyway, unable to believe that this beautiful thing is on his body, a permanent part of him. The tattoo, Molly-- so many beautiful things have left their marks on his undeserving skin lately.

Nott touches his elbow. “It looks good,” she says softly.

“Yes. It does.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cheese. Oh, the cheese.
> 
> Sorry this took waaaay longer than anticipated! Real life got crazy and the holidays happened and this just kinda... sat there for quite a while. But here it is! Hopefully the half dozen sequels and prequels I have lined up won't take as long. Thank you so, so much to everyone who commented! You are the reason there are more fics in my drafts. You give me, and this story, life.

There is a voice, far away, calling to him in a thick Zemnian accent. He can’t understand the words but the voice is familiar, important. Something in him reaches towards it. 

“Yes, that’s it,” Another voice, much closer, whispers in his ear. A brush of something soft, feathers maybe? “Remember. He’s calling you back. It’s not your time yet.”

But who? Who is calling him, where? The voice continues, choked with emotion, and he gets a flash of coppery hair, dirt smudged skin. Someone he touched, loved, maybe. Someone special, no doubt.

“It’s not working. He’s gone.” The Zemnian voice breaks, and he surges forward to chase away that pain. He surges forward, forward, forward…

\----

The first thing Molly does when he gets back is drag them all to the nearest bath house. Coming back to life is draining, even when it doesn’t involve clawing out of a shallow grave with no memories. Hot water with good company sounds like the best possible remedy. Everyone agrees readily, too happy to have him back to argue about cost, or any dislike of water and public nudity. But Caleb hangs back.

He’s even more hesitant to disrobe than he was the first time they did this, which is odd enough that it catches Molly’s attention despite the joyous flurry of the others undressing around him and sinking into the steamy bath.

“He’s going to see it eventually,” Nott says gently.

“Or are you going to stop fucking him?”

Molly turns, surprised and delighted. 

“You told them?” He wouldn’t have cared if the whole world knew, but Caleb was the skittish type, so he kept quiet, let it be whatever Caleb wanted, whatever he could handle.

“I-- ah...” Caleb has taken off his coat and most of his outer layers, but he seems to have stalled there.

“Nevermind all that, let’s just get in the bath!” Molly says, and turns to head out of the changing area.

Jester and Yasha are already in the water, with Fjord slipping in just as Molly arrives. He lowers himself into the bath and closes his eyes, partially to just bask in the warmth, but partially to give Caleb the chance to overcome whatever temporary shyness has taken him.

After a few minutes he opens his eyes and sure enough, Caleb is sitting in the water, a few feet away and just barely visible without Molly turning his head. Directly across from Molly, Beau is leaning back with her arms propped on the sides of the bath, and Nott is crouched on the edge, trailing her fingers through the water. As he watches, a bright orange flower blossoms on Nott’s forearm. A familiar flower. Belatedly, he notices the same flower already in full bloom on Beau’s shoulder. Abruptly putting two and two together, he turns to his left and sure enough, visible through the steam, Molly can see a large splotch of orange over Caleb’s pelvis as well.

“You all got tattoos, _magical_ tattoos, without me?”

“Well _that_ wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”

“I’ll be having a very different sort of reaction, in private, with Caleb if he’s amenable, but right now I think I’m allowed a little indignance! They’re incredible! Where did you get them? How do they work?”

“It was Caleb’s idea.”

“Actually it was _my_ idea,” Beau interjects, “Caleb just chose the design and how they activate.”

“They react to warmth,” Nott continues. She takes a few steps away from the bath and blows on her arm to cool the skin, and the flower closes up. When she comes back and dunks her arm in the hot water, it immediately opens again. “He said you had a tattoo like this, and that it was special to you.”

Even more so now, Molly thinks. “I don’t have _anything_ like that. None of _my_ tattoos move. I demand we go back; where was this place? I think I deserve a new tattoo for dying and coming back to life.”

As they discuss the logistics of getting back to this magical tattoo parlor, what ink they might want to get and where, Molly slowly, subtly tries to close the space between himself and Caleb. Caleb notices when Molly shifts into a stretch that causes his tail to accidentally flick water in Caleb’s face. But he doesn’t move away, or hunch in on himself in that way he has when he’s uncomfortable, so Molly takes it as permission to continue. When they’re side by side but not quite touching, Molly takes Caleb’s hand under the water. Caleb allows it. When Molly looks up again Beau is looking right at him. She holds his eye just long enough to ensure he knows she saw what he did, and then she turns back to the conversation. Whatever that means.

Molly half expects Caleb to avoid the chance of being alone with him after the incident at the bath house, but when he retires early that night at the inn, Molly takes it as a sign. Since the fact of their involvement is apparently now known, Molly doesn't try too hard to hide what he's doing as he excuses himself shortly after Caleb has gone. He feels Nott's eyes on him as he ascends the stairs.

He knocks on the door to Caleb's room lightly enough that it won't wake Caleb if he actually is sleeping, but it's not a surprise when he hears, “Come in.”

Caleb is stripped down to just his shirt and pants, sitting cross-legged on the bed with a book, Frumpkin curled up beside him. He sets the book down and faces Molly with a grim expression.

“I know I should not have done it. It was not my place, and I didn't tell them what it meant if that is any consolation, but… I am sorry, Mollymauk.”

“Caleb, what in the hells are you talking about?”

Caleb frowns at him, confused.

“The tattoo. I should not have… I appreciate you being kind about it around the others, but I know it was not right of me to have taken… to have taken this part of you, for myself. I know that I do not deserve that.”

“Caleb--” Molly starts towards him but Caleb's shoulders go up so he stops, takes a step back. “Caleb. You taking a tattoo that you know is particularly special to me and getting it inked on your own body is one of the most touching things anyone has ever done for me, short of calling me back from the fucking dead.”

Caleb blinks at him, stunned.

“It was your voice I heard, you know. I heard you say, 'It’s not working. He's gone,’ and I knew I had to get back to you.”

Molly takes a few steps forward and Caleb just stares.

“Can I?” Molly gestures at Caleb's midsection.

“Yes.”

Molly closes the distance and gently nudges Caleb to lay on his back. He pushes Caleb's shirt up and Caleb holds his breath. Molly just looks at the closed flower for a moment, then tugs Caleb's pants down a bit and presses his hand to the tattoo, watches it bloom.

“It's beautiful.”

Caleb touches the side of Molly's face.

“Yes, it is.”


End file.
